INTERNATIONAL SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2014 Hindu ‘Modi-fication’ of education raises concern Head of India’s research body comes under fire NEW DELHI: Indians were flying aeroplanes, carrying out stem Two Indian states run by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party cell research and may even have been using cosmic weapons have recruited controversial Hindu nationalist Dinanath Batra Police search 5,000 years ago, according to the chairman of India’s leading to advise on writing textbooks. In June, thousands of schools historical organization. in Gujarat were given textbooks by Batra that claimed cars Indian guru’s Professor Y Sudershan Rao, the head of the Indian Council were invented in ancient India and told children to draw an of Historical Research, has been criticized by fellow historians enlarged nation to include countries including Pakistan, ashram after arrest for comments that Hindu epics are adequate to understand Bangladesh and Afghanistan. the ancient world, rather than relying on evidence or research. Teachers at Batra’s organization say they want the books to NEW DELHI: Indian police yesterday searched the sprawling The Hindu nationalist government appointed Rao to the pres- be in every school. “The lessons from today’s history books are ashram of a holy man who was arrested on suspicion of murder tigious academic post soon after winning the biggest land- that Indians are nothing and good for nothing,” said Atul and criminal conspiracy after a deadly siege at his fortress-like slide in three decades, fuelling concerns of a push to teach the Kothari, secretary of Batra’s Shiksha Bachao Andolan Samiti, or compound. superiority of Hindu values and mythology at the cost of aca- Save the Education Movement. “The truth is that historically Sant Rampal, a 63-year-old former engineer, had ignored demic rigor, and cutting against the grain of secularism that we have been a far superior race.” orders to appear in court for questioning in a 2006 murder case. runs through multi-faith modern India. Education Minister Smriti Irani, a former soap actress, But when police moved in to arrest him Tuesday, they clashed “We have so many proofs that these events happened,” declined to comment on what revisions will be included in a with thousands of devotees who were packed inside his heavily Rao, 69, said in an interview, describing events in the review of the curriculum planned next year. fortified ashram in northern India. Mahabharata and the Ramayana, the ancient Hindu epics The last time the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party was in power His supporters said he was too ill to make the 250-kilometer about love and war, truth and deceit, that feature characters a decade ago it began to rewrite school books in line with (155-mile) journey from his ashram to the court in Chandigarh, the using inextinguishable fire and weapons with the destructive Hindu-nationalist orthodoxy. When the rival Congress party Haryana state capital. power of a nuclear arsenal. came back to power it rewrote the books again. Academics Some of his followers were armed with rocks, guns and small Similar views have won support from Prime Minister say the loser in all this are confused, and sometimes ill- bags of acid, according to police. By the time of his arrest Narendra Modi and in part reflect a belief that India’s history informed, school children. Modi is the first prime minister to Wednesday, he faced additional charges related to the siege, books are beholden to colonial powers, foreign invaders and publicly back the view that holy texts show many discoveries including murder, sedition and criminal conspiracy. At least six Marxists. While there is debate over the exact age of the Hindu of modern science were made by ancient Indians. He told an people - five women and an 18-month-old child - died during the epics, historians say they were probably written at least two audience of doctors last month that the Hindu god Ganesh’s standoff. Officials were still working to determine the causes of millennia ago. Rao says this in itself is proof the texts are factu- head was evidence of ancient plastic surgery. A warrior the death, police official Anil Kumar said. al because humans did not develop the art of fiction writing Mahabharata describes as born outside his mother’s womb About 200 people were injured, including security forces. until a few centuries back. was a test-tube baby, Modi said. “These claims can be inter- Rampal, who says he is the reincarnation of an Indian poet and Many academics are horrified by such views, and describe preted as signs of an inferiority complex,” said Romila Thapar, mystic, is one of many gurus and Hindu holy men who command his appointment as a blow for the history organization set up a leading scholar on ancient India. “The most disturbing thing huge followings in India. The enormous power wielded by self- four decades ago to guide research and hand out grants. They is that many people accept this without questioning it,” said styled holy men has led to scandals in which some have been point to signs of a broader plan to bring more Hinduism to the Thapar, whose books one BJP leader has said should be accused of exploiting devotees. —AP classroom through changes to the curriculum. burned. —Reuters.